Best CDN in 2022 – A Comprehensive Guide for Content Delivery
Updated: September 02,2022
Sometimes less is more. While 10 seconds might be a fantastic time for running a 100-meter race, it’s less impressive when you’re waiting for a web page to load. Nowadays, people have short attention spans, and if your page isn’t ready to scroll within a few seconds, they’ll most likely leave it.
You could try to remedy the problem by stripping out all the graphics and making your site look dull and outdated, or you could address the real problem: your server is physically located far away from your customers. Without a global content delivery network, the trip is just too long for your site load balancing. Just imagine if regular social media sites with millions of users would ever function without this service.
That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the best CDN providers today. After putting them up against our rigorous criteria, we came up with the top picks you can safely rely on in 2022. Don’t sacrifice a single dancing hippo GIF if you don’t have to!
Excellent
1. Cloudflare
Excellent
2. Akamai
Good
3. Google Cloud CDN
Good
4. KeyCDN
- Fantastic free plan
- Excellent coverage
- Easy to set up and use
- No API protection
Pricing
The first thing we should mention about Cloud, aside from the fact that it’s likely the best free CDN around, is that it offers a comprehensive free CDN plan. It comes with email support, access to the Cloudflare CDN secure global network, and basic DDoS attack mitigation, which is more than enough to get you started without having to pay a dime.
To get the real experience, though, you’ll want to upgrade to one of the paid plans. The first is the $20 per month Pro plan, which adds a web application firewall, lossless image optimization, detailed media analytics, and automatic optimization for mobile devices.
From there, you can go for the $200 per month Business plan or get a quote for Cloudflare’s CDN provider plan: Enterprise. These higher-tier plans add several advanced CDN features, such as 100% uptime service level agreements, PCI compliance, live chat, and phone support, the option to use your own SSL certificate, and more.
User Experience
Another benefit of this CDN provider is that it’s a really straightforward and simple solution to install and use. Installation takes but a couple of minutes, and the intuitive dashboard makes navigating the software a breeze.
When it comes to customer support, the free and pro versions come with email support only. You’ll have to get the pricey Business plan to get 24/7 live chat support, and Cloudflare’s CDN pricing really goes up if you want dedicated phone support as well.
Features
Let’s start with the most important part: network speed. According to CDNPerf’s results, Cloudflare sits around the middle of the table, with a 78.97 ms average query speed during the last month, based on some 300 million daily user tests.
In our experience, it ran pretty well across the board, though obviously, some regions performed better than others. Asian servers were particularly fast, for example. With more than 180 edge locations around the world, you’re sure to find a good reliable server just about anywhere, though.
Another excellent feature of Cloudflare is its fantastic WordPress integration. In fact, we’d say the company offers perhaps the best WordPress CDN experience around, as its add-on is not only free but works natively with WordPress.
Cloudflare’s security is also top-notch. Even free content delivery platform users get excellent DDoS protection, with the company claiming that its system averts more than 70 billion malware threats every day. Starting with the Pro plan, security features get bolstered by a web application firewall, too.
Final Words
Cloudflare is one of the world’s oldest and most popular CDN services. It’s good to see that it hasn’t rested on its laurels and is still one of the best and most reliable options on the market. With an excellent free plan and fantastic WordPress integration, it easily earns its place on our list of the greatest CDN companies in 2022.
- Second fastest CDN on our list
- A high number of servers
- Great for large scale projects
- Not beginner-friendly
Pricing
Unlike many content delivery network companies, Akamai tailors to individual customers, and as such, the price tag depends on your unique requirements. That said, the company is used to working with big players, so don’t expect its services to come cheap.
We got a quote of around $0.35 per gigabyte, working out to around $3,500 for 10 TB of traffic. This places its CDN cost on the higher end of the spectrum, but you’re getting world-class service and access to an unprecedented number of servers around the globe.
There is no free plan, but the company allows you to test out some of its products before making a long-term commitment.
User Experience
Akamai is primarily aimed at large companies and enterprises. As such, it’s ideally meant for the types of users who would have professional web developers working on their site. In other words, its complex set of tools is not the easiest to set up and use but provides a lot of options to those who know what they are doing.
As one of the largest CDN providers around, Akamai has fantastic customer support options. You can reach representatives 24/7 via phone, live chat, or email and get great response times. While the software itself may not be beginner-friendly, the knowledgeable staff will certainly be able to lend you a hand with any problems you may encounter.
Features
As you’d expect from a company with over 20 years of experience serving various big industry names such as LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Hulu, Akamai has a world-class CDN network, comprising more than 200,000 servers in more than 130 countries around the world.
It’s not just server coverage but speed, too. The consistently fast servers combined with advanced in-house features make Akamai the best content delivery network for video streaming, but you don’t have to have a video-heavy site to benefit from speedy and reliable servers.
At 73.20 ms average worldwide query speed, Akamai is hot on the heels of Google Cloud CDN in the battle for the fastest provider around. When you take into account the fact that the vast server network covers almost 30% of global web traffic, you get a pretty good idea of the company’s massive web presence.
Security is also top-notch, with two-factor authentication, world-class SSL encryption, and standard protection against DoS attacks.
Final Words
If you’re looking for the top CDN for live streaming and video content, Akamai is a fantastic option. It’s not for everyone, though. Both the complexity of setting it up and the quote-only pricing scheme with prices on the higher end of industry standards may be a deal-breaker for some. That said, Akamai provides some of the fastest and most reliable CDN servers in the industry, which shouldn’t come cheap. It can deliver high-quality content, which is ideal for video streaming.
- $300 in free credits
- Native integration across Google’s vast platform network
- Free SSL certificate
- Lacking some features
Pricing
You won’t see this as the finest CDN provider if you don’t like Akamai. Google cloud platform and Akamai both have a vast network of secure servers and offer pricing schemes based on the amount of data being used. A CDN comparison also reveals that both are more expensive than Cloudflare.
The main difference between Google and Akamai is that Google’s content delivery network service incentivizes large data usage, ideally in regions where it already has a vast CDN network: Europe or North America.
The price for 10 TB is $0.08 per GB in North America and Europe. The price can go as low as $0.02, provided you have enough bandwidth usage. Other regions like Africa, South America, and Oceania are more expensive, with prices going as high as $0.20 per GB.
On the bright side, Google’s top CDN offers a generous $300 in free credit, allowing you to test all the important features.
User Experience
The CDN should be easy to master if you’re familiar with other Google products. While advanced customization may require a serious level of tech-savviness, picking up and using the software won’t require you to have a professional developer on hand to get through the installation process.
Unfortunately, as with other commercial Google products, you’ll have to pay for customer support. The basic free plan covers only billing support and read-only access to break/fix cases. For full chat, phone, and email support, you’ll have to get one of the paid plans, starting at $100 per month.
Features
When looking for a fast and reliable network, Google naturally has the best CDN provider network selection around. Averaging 71.89 ms according to CDNPref, it tops even high-profile competition such as Akamai, Microsoft Azure CDN, and Cloudflare.
We probably don’t need to stress that by signing up with Google’s Cloud CDN, you’re guaranteed access to a veritable army of servers and data centers all around the globe, especially in Europe and North America.
With support for hybrid and multi-cloud architectures and edge locations peered with nearly every major end-user ISP globally, Google Cloud CDN offers perhaps the best content delivery network overall. Mobile support is also fantastic, owing to Google’s proven track record with Android.
As you’d expect from Google, security protocols are also taken quite seriously. TLS (SSL) certificates come free with your subscription, two-factor authentication is supported, and there is a whole slew of other enterprise-friendly security solutions.
Final Words
Google Cloud CDN may not be the most affordable or customizable content delivery network, but the blend of unmatched speed, great server coverage, and excellent integrations make it hard to beat.
- Very affordable
- Easy to set up and use
- IPv6 support
- No tech support during trial
Pricing
Compared to the rest of the top CDN services on our list, KeyCDN is a much smaller provider aimed primarily at individuals, startups, and small companies. This is reflected not only in its much smaller server infrastructure but also in its very affordable pricing scheme.
As with Google, pricing is regional, with North America and Europe being the cheapest, while South Africa and South America cost the most. Prices for the Europe/NA regions start at $0.04/GB for the first 10 TB per month but go down to as little as $0.01 when going over 100 TB. There is also discounted volume pricing if you manage to go over 150 TB per month.
While the most affordable CDN deals are to be found in these two regions, customers in South Africa will have to pay as much as $0.11/GB for their first 10 TB each month. No matter where you are, there are no request charges, and the minimum monthly usage is $4, while the minimum you need to pay per year is $49.
Other CDN options offer as much value for money. That said, there are no trial options available, but you won’t need one at these prices.
User Experience
In the battle of the best content delivery network companies, KeyCDN is in many ways the polar opposite of Akamai. Very affordable vs. very expensive, small server infrastructure vs. huge infrastructure, and very simple installation and user interface vs. one that requires a web professional.
The setup is lightning quick, and registration only requires entering a valid email address and creating an account, which takes less than a minute. Every feature is controlled from a handy navigation bar on the left side of the page, and the user interface is as friendly as it gets when it comes to a content delivery network provider.
We should also mention the fantastic customer support available 24/7 via email, phone, and Skype.
Features
While KeyCDN won’t win any greatest CDN service awards when it comes to speed or server coverage, that’s to be expected from a small company that primarily aims to be affordable. According to CDNPerf’s data, it averages around 92.41 ms worldwide, placing it 16th on the list of the fastest content delivery networks around.
You won’t get nearly as much choice as you would with the competition, especially regarding servers; KeyCDN currently has only 34 servers spread across 25 countries. They are mostly focused on Europe and North America, while the northern part of Africa is not covered at all at the moment.
If Akamai is a fantastic choice for video streaming, KeyCDN is a great fit for images. While the network speed is not up there with the best CDN providers around, it’s more than good enough for image optimization and sharing. But what really sells it is the price: just $1 per 2,000 images processed. There are also website CDN WordPress integrations and an ad-enabled video player so you can monetize videos on your website.
Security is also better than you would expect at this price range. You can either integrate your existing SSL certificate or get a shared one from KeyCDN, all without incurring any additional costs. Excellent encryption protocols are bolstered by security features such as secure token links and two-factor authentication.
Final Words
KeyCDN is a great little-budget alternative to industry giants such as Cloudflare, Akamai, and Google Cloud CDN. While it may not reach the top CDNs providers in terms of server infrastructure or high-end corporate features, it offers a very solid set of features for a significantly lower price than the competition. Ideally suited to small-scale entrepreneurs and startups, it’s a great option for anyone who values cost savings more than having the fastest possible website.
Top CDN Services
- Cloudflare
- Akamai
- Google Cloud CDN
- KeyCDN
Our Evaluation Method for Finding the Leading CDN
In order to help you find a reliable piece of CDN software, we’ve come up with strict criteria for evaluating the top candidates on the market. Price and value, performance and reliability, the number of available servers, integrations and security features, and customer support all play a role when choosing the prime CDN provider.
As is the case with any product on the market, the first consideration for many potential customers is how much dough they’ll have to fork out. Some companies clearly offer more bang for your buck, but you’ll also have to gauge your own needs accurately.
Many companies charge according to your monthly bandwidth. And, of course, a small-scale personal or startup website won’t need the same extensive toolset that a large site like Amazon might.
Finding the cheapest CDN is one thing, but don’t expect miracles unless you’re willing to pay for them. Server infrastructure is costly, after all. This category considers perhaps the most important aspect of choosing good CDN hosting: the speed of its servers.
Many CDN vendors offer some sort of a trial option, which gives you an ideal way of testing the speed and stability of the service compared to your origin site. Increasing loading speeds and reducing latency are some of the most basic and instantly noticeable improvements that a good CDN server should be able to provide.
Many people get a CDN service so they don’t have to worry about power outages, DDoS attacks, and other issues that could kill their website’s online presence. It’s reasonable to want the outstanding CDN providers that have systems in place to deal with such situations and enough backup servers to cover any potential issues on their end.
Speaking of servers, another big feature of reliable content delivery networks is proper worldwide server distribution. Reliable server coverage is one of the primary ways in which such systems can drastically improve your website’s performance and reliability. Even if you have a very specific local audience, you’ll appreciate having more servers to cache data at your disposal.
Another key aspect you should be mindful of when picking the top CDN network for your needs is the range of security options offered. eCommerce websites are particularly vulnerable to hacker attacks, and proper data encryption can mean the difference between a seamless shopping experience and a potentially costly lawsuit.
Even if you’re not afraid of personal or credit card data leakage, DoS and DDoS attacks can cripple the speed of your sites or even render them completely unusable. Many good CDN platforms provide numerous security features, ranging from 2FA systems to SSL encryption, RSA keys, and more.
Getting started with CDNs can be a daunting experience for people without a developer background. This category is all about CDN best practices when it comes to customer care. It covers everything from how easy it is to install and operate the software to the accessibility of the customer support team.
Being able to quickly troubleshoot potential problems with your content delivery network is essential to having peace of mind. Typically free and lower-tier plans feature email support or live chat, while more expensive options add dedicated phone agents.
A content delivery network is a service that offers a geographically distributed group of servers together with their data centers. At the most basic level, the best CDN providers help to decrease page loading times by reducing the physical distance between the site’s servers and its users.
A CDN network allows you to deliver content with better image optimization and higher quality video streaming and acts as a gateway for your website. It’s a great service for the much faster transfer of large content such as animated images, videos, and javascript files. It also helps alleviate traffic bottlenecks and cache data closer to the source, improving website performance and speed.
In addition to making everything run faster, properly configured content delivery networks can also serve as the first line of protection against various malicious attacks on your website. That said, even the best CDNs are not supposed to replace web hosting services. They don’t actually host content; they just cache it to reduce bandwidth usage.
The real question is, why wouldn’t you want one? Here’s the list of benefits:
This is the main reason most people implement CDN networks. In the age of lightning-fast internet, optic cables, and Wi-Fi adapters, it’s no longer acceptable for pages to take more than a few seconds to load. As people get impatient and start leaving your site(s), the lost web traffic means you don’t only lose potential sales and other revenue, but your site will also take a dip in Google’s web rankings.
The best CDN hosting sites decrease the time it takes for websites to load, speeding up the process of data delivery by distributing it across high-speed regional servers around the world.
It’s not just about bringing people to your website; you want them to stay there. A speedy website that uses CDN providers won’t get a high bounce rate from all the visitors who rage-quit for being forced to endure long loading times. This, in turn, has a positive effect on its ratings on Google, and it’s far less likely to be viewed as a spam site with no worthwhile content.
Bandwidth costs are typically the highest expense paid by website owners, but even low-cost CDN providers can help alleviate that to some degree. By placing their servers at key internet exchange points around the world, caching website data, and performing various other optimizations, CDN companies can do much more than just help increase your website’s access speeds.
The key here is that lowering the amount of data that the origin server has to provide also reduces hosting costs for website owners.
An often overlooked benefit of CDN services is their ability to increase the security of your website. Hackers love denial-of-service (DoS) and distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and without the finest CDN server security protocols or alternative encryption solutions, websites are wide open to being flooded by data specifically designed to cripple them.
At best, such attacks can cause severe slowdowns, while at worst, they can completely paralyze the site and stop people from being able to interact with it. This can really affect your site’s reputation; even after you’ve spent significant resources on restoring everything to normal, people will be far less willing to visit a potentially insecure site.
The way global CDN solutions deal with such attacks is simple: they make improvements to security certificates and DDoS mitigation protocols. By their very nature, to properly distribute and cache data, the best CDN systems have to be able to analyze traffic patterns and react to potential surges identified as originating from a malicious source.
Malicious attacks aren’t the only issues web admins face. While they can certainly put your site out of commission for a good while, so can hardware failure, power outages, and other technical difficulties. Due to their worldwide distributed nature, global CDN servers can handle more traffic and are better able to withstand potential software- or hardware-related difficulties.
This, in turn, positively affects your website’s online ranking, as speedy and reliable sites tend to be valued by Google’s algorithms just as much as those with high-quality content.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ
Content delivery network (CDN) services are geographically distributed networks of proxy servers and their data centers that aim to improve the speed and security of websites.
Anyone whose website has a worldwide audience, really.
A CDN service will help websites get better geographical exposure by caching data on local servers, which will significantly boost page loading and transaction speeds. This is especially useful for content-heavy or eCommerce/transaction-based sites and news sites that often issue the latest press releases.
They will also boost the website’s security, thwarting malware attacks and preventing dangerous data leaks.
Currently, that honor goes to Google Cloud CDN and Akamai.
Considering the massive server infrastructure these providers offer, it’s hard to imagine other providers overtaking them anytime soon. That being said, the differences between the top contenders tend to be fairly small and shouldn’t greatly affect your decision.
Yes, absolutely.
As one of the oldest and most popular content delivery networks around, it’s still many people’s first association when thinking about CDN services. It’s also the only provider on our list to offer a free content delivery network option. It easily deserves a place on our list of the top CDN options in 2022.
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